The Friday Fillip

In order to compensate for the many frivolous places I’ve sent you on Friday, I offer you something much more earnest today — and something to do with laws. The laws, however, are those of the universe and not of any of our dull sublunary jurisdictions. And the earnest thing is a giant, free physics book available online in PDF.

The author, Christoph Schiller, got his doctorate in physics at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, and says that he believes “exploring physics is more fun that making love.” Hmmn.

Still and all, when you’re not doing the latter, you might try the former in this magnum opus, the 21st edition of which was just posted in December. If you’ve ever wondered “Does space differ from time?” or “Why should we care about motion?” — and I know you have — do yourself a favour and try Dr. Shiller’s answers.